interview with the author of: Rise Of The Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces

Quote:

I would also argue that using dynamic, forced-entry tactics to serve search warrants on people suspected of consensual crimes is actually more dangerous than, say, waiting for your suspect to leave the house or apprehending him during a traffic stop. You're creating violence and confrontation. SWAT teams were once used to save lives when a violent person had put them at risk. Today, they're primarily used in a way that puts lives at risk.

Liberty Tax Service doesn't let just anyone don its trademark Lady Liberty costume and dance for potential tax customers. There are tryouts and specialized training on proper singing, dancing and waving techniques. A lot of dreams are crushed.
Channing Gould was one of the lucky ones. A 19-year-old performing arts student at Tarrant County College and aspiring hip hop artist, he earned the right to stand in front of the Liberty Tax franchise on North Tarrant Parkway in Fort Worth. And then, seven months ago, he lost it.

The story made national headlines. Gould was dancing on the median in the 4800 block of North Tarrant Parkway on March 11 when he was approached by Fort Worth police. Told that he was disrupting traffic in violation of city ordinance, Gould was asked to leave the narrow strip of grass. When Gould also refused to get into the back of the squad car, the cop took down Lady Liberty with a Taser.

See also: Arlington Cracks Down on Sidewalk Advertising, Ignoring Veterans Who "Fought and Died" for Right to Wear Sandwich Boards

It was a mortifying experience for Gould, but it wasn't the last humiliation he would suffer Fort Worth's criminal justice system. WFAA's Teresa Woodard caught up with Gould last night.

"I'm an innocent Tax Liberty guy," he told Woodard. "I was dancing. That's what I do. I dance."

It's true. Gould's innocence was formally established when Tarrant County prosecutors recently dismissed his resisting arrest charge, but only after a suitable punishment.

"I had to write 52 times on a board that I would not argue with police in order to get a dismissal," Gould said. "In front of the judge and witnesses that were there, I signed it. I even made it colorful for them and all that...I felt like Bart Simpson."

I don’t need to write lines upon lines of words to explain this video. Just look take a look at it and then make your mind up on how trigger happy police work. The dog in the video wasn’t aggressive. Wasn’t biting anyone. It certainly wasn’t out of control. Turns out the owner of the dog had a neighbour who didn’t exactly get along so the neighbour called the cops to falsely report an out of control dog. As a result the cops shot the dog in the head for no reason. If you didn’t see it, all them cops had their stun guns withdrew. Instead they decide to kill it using a gun.

LYNN, Mass. – A disabled Iraq war veteran was shot and killed after police claim he grabbed an officer’s gun inside his apartment.

Lynn Police Chief Kevin Coppinger said officers were responding to reports of a disturbance. They allege the suspect, Denis Reynoso, got into a heated exchange with a person in a gray car before returning to his residence.

Investigators claim three officers entered Reynoso’s apartment where he wrestled a gun away from one of the officers.

“A physical struggle ensued during that struggle it appears that individual was able to take one of the firearms from one of the police officers and shots were fired in the apartment,” said Coppinger.

Reynoso was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died from his injuries.

Family members claim the Iraq War veteran was caring for one of his two children during the shooting. They say he would never try to grab a gun from a police officer.

“You took him from two beautiful children and a wife, and a sister, and a mother, and everybody,” said Reynoso’s wife, Jessica Spinney.

Spinney says she disagrees with the police version of the story.

“Do you think a disabled veteran from Iraq would reach for another officer’s pistol? Never in a million years,” Spinney said.

The district attorney “will conduct an investigation of the use of fatal force as is protocol,” office spokeswoman Carrie Kimball-Monahan said. Findings of the investigation will be made available to the public.

From what I understand is the cop entered the house without a warrant as well...

Contending, wrongly, that his kirpan was illegal, the officers demanded that Mr. Singh remove it. When Mr. Singh explained that he was a Sikh and that the kirpan was a sacred religious article, the officers laughed at him and mocked his religious beliefs. One officer declared that all Sikhs are "depraved" and "terrorists." They continued to taunt him, and forced Mr. Singh to circle his truck with his hands on his turban while they searched the vehicle. Finally, not content with this humiliation, they arrested him, claiming that Mr. Singh had refused to obey an officer's lawful command.

Mr. Singh's ordeal did not end with the MDOT. When he returned to Mississippi on March 26, 2013, for his court date at the Pike County Justice Court, he once again suffered humiliation, harassment, and discrimination because of his religious beliefs. Waiting for his attorney in the back of the courtroom, he was stunned when four Highway Patrol officers approached him and ordered him to leave the courtroom. The officers stated that Judge Aubrey Rimes had ordered them to eject Mr. Singh from the courtroom because he did not like Mr. Singh's turban. Moreover, they told Mr. Singh that Judge Rimes would punish him if he failed to remove his headdress.

When Mr. Singh's attorney went to Judge Rimes's chambers to inquire about the matter, he readily confirmed that he had expelled Mr. Singh from the courtroom because of his turban. He further stated that Mr. Singh would not be allowed to re-enter the courtroom unless he removed "that rag" from his head and threatened to call Mr. Singh last on the docket if he continued to wear the religious headdress...

Alexis Ahart, 16-year-old Opelousas resident, says she was home alone last Wednesday when Opelousas Deputy Marshal Frank Angelle Sr. barged into her house without a warrant, taking photographs and sifting through the house.

"He opened the door and started taking pictures and flinging things down and I'd asked him what was going on and he said he was doing police business," says Ahart.

She also claims Deputy Marshal Angelle laid hands on her when she tried to use her cellphone to record what he was doing inside her house.

"He pushed me up against the wall that is to the right of me and he kept on embracing me back and he got in my face spit in my face he took my phone twisted it out of my arm and deleted the pictures and screamed at me basically threatened me," says Ahart.

Ahart says these photos were taken the evening of the incident before she went to the hospital and according to this report from Opelousas General she was diagnosed with a sprained wrist.

Now her father Michael Ahart is getting Marshal Paul Mouton involved.

Michael Ahart confronted Mouton last Friday, but was unable to lodge a complaint, until this Thursday when we showed up at the Marshal's Office with the incident report.""

"He came a couple days ago to my office... but he has a complaint we gonna investigate it and I can get back to you after the investigation," says Mouton.

This is pure activist gold! We film a traffic stop. No big deal right? Here's the twist of awesomeness obviously the stop was total bullshit. Here's why, as we arrive the cop is writing the ticket. After thinking about the presence of 3 cameras the costumed road pirate decides to ask for the ticket and proceeds to tear it up and send their potential victim home! Pure Activist Gold! I had not yet been in Austin for 1 hour and already my camera is helping to un-write a traffic ticket.

Brian Otero spent nearly two years in Cook County Jail waiting to go to trial for a burglary. The jury found him not guilty, but he didn’t get to leave the courtroom like they do on TV. No, he was brought back into the Cook County Jail to be “processed” out. He was put in a small cell just off the front of the courtroom, to eventually be brought back into the jail.

Now remember, at this point, there are no charges against Otero, yet he’s being detained against his will because that’s just how we’ve always done it in Cook County. Defendants who have been held in jail awaiting trial are brought back into the jail. They can be handcuffed, searched, and locked back up in their cell even though there are no charges against them.

Sheriff Tom Dart and county officials are doing little to change the seemingly unconstitutional practice and that could cost taxpayers millions...

"When I walked out of my office after work, my blue Bianchi of over 14.5 years was missing, and two of my locks were cut laying on the ground," Arthur writes in an email. "I froze! But I figured that the NYPD cut my bike locks because Vice President Joe Biden was next door speaking—though when I parked my bike just before 9 a.m. that morning, there was no indication of any police or fencing on the street that day."

A Virgin America passenger is suing the airline for $500,000 after being detained by federal agents following an in-flight tiff. After his soft-drink order went awry, flight attendants reported to the police that the passenger went to the lavatory, cursed, and left the toilet unflushed.

...

The passenger had little other interaction with the crew, but when the plane landed at San Francisco International, he was pulled aside and taken into custody by airport police and federal agents, the lawsuit states.

An incident report filed by San Francisco police shows authorities were called to the scene because the flight crew complained to the pilot that Bevivino was using profanities and not listening to instructions.

A flight attendant told police Bevivino said, “My time is precious, you are here to serve me,” and that he later used the lavatory but did not flush the toilet, according to the incident report.

Castellani is now suing and the incident is supposedly under investigation by internal affairs and the Atlantic County Prosecutor, which we can imagine, will go nowhere.

The incident took place in June after Castellani was kicked out of a casino for being underage. The video shows he was exchanging words with cops from down the street when they came charging at him and attacked like a pack of rabid dogs.

The police officers in this video must either be extremely dumb or completely untrained. Using a stun gun (taser) against anyone can have deadly consequences like the 20 year old in a vegetative state found out because she ran from a cop. It looks like the man in this video was extremely drunk and the police had been called to move him from a property. You’ll notice he’s already in handcuffs and I fail to see what threat he posed to the officers, but still that doesn’t stop them from constantly tasering, kicking, punching at screaming at him.

I don’t see why the police had to handle this situation in the way they did. If someone you’re arresting is in handcuffs then the chances are they no longer pose a threat (unless they’re a ninja of course) so why on earth do the police officers have to beat this guy to a pulp? Because they know they can get away with doing so. All they have to say is something like ‘he was being uncooperative and I felt my life was in danger’ – that’s usually the exact words all officers say when they’re asked a question like ‘why did you kill that guy?’ or ‘why did you beat that guy up?’.

Again, the police show up in big numbers for this one man that wasn’t even fighting he was simply drunk and couldn’t stand up.

AUSTIN -- An Austin police officer has been fired for shooting at a driver during a traffic stop.
On Friday, Chief Art Acevedo said the shooting was unreasonable, especially the way the officer acted after he fired his gun, but the civil rights attorney handling the case says his termination is not enough.

Dash camera video shows what happened after James Barton was pulled over at 12th Street and Airport for running a red light back in May.
"Stay in the car. Stay in the car. Stay in the car," yelled Austin Police Department Officer Justin Boehm, who fired one shot as Barton stepped outside of the car.
It cost Officer Boehm his job.

"It was not reasonable and therefore under our policies the only appropriate discipline is indefinite suspension," Acevedo said.

Seven years ago John Collins was charged with aggravated battery of a police officer, a felony in Illinois. He was sent to a Cook County jail and bond was set at $75,000, which he could not pay. The jail was overcrowded, so Collins slept on the floor. He remained there for 385 days, during which time he missed the birth of his first child, a baby boy. His fiancé brought his infant son to visit but he was not allowed to hold him, separated by a pane of glass. Sometimes, those visits were canceled “ when the jail was put on lock-down for stabbings and murders.” Eventually, his fiancé left him, saying his time in the jail had changed him — he wasn’t the same person anymore.

Today Collins is a free man, acquitted of all charges, and the Chicago Police owe him $1 million. His seven-year odyssey may have finally ended this week, when a jury unanimously found the two officers involved guilty of malicious prosecution for fabricating the case against him.